Many in Middle Class Say They Are Doing Worse Financially
August 23rd, 2012The Onion’s satire is the best commentary for this one: Nation’s Lower Class At Least Grateful It Not Part Of Nation’s Middle Class:
A survey released Wednesday by researchers at the University of North Carolina found that despite the many challenges they face, the nation’s lowest-income individuals are nonetheless thankful they don’t have to endure the unique hardships of the nation’s long-suffering middle class.
According to the report, the 46 million Americans who fall below the federal poverty line, though struggling mightily, are at least glad they don’t have to live up to some rapidly vanishing American dream of advancing in their career, making more money, and improving their lifestyle, the way their middle-income counterparts do.
“The unrealistic expectations and false hope they experience must be unbearable,” Camden, NJ hotel clerk Allison Jacobsen told researchers, noting that while her $22,000 annual salary barely covers her rent and groceries each month, at least she doesn’t operate under the flawed assumption that her situation will ever improve. “A life spent constantly stressing out over a dead-end job or struggling to pay off a fixed 30-year mortgage on a continuously depreciating three-bedroom townhouse? It’s horrific.”
“Can you believe people actually have to live like that?” Jacobsen added. “I feel just awful for them.”
Via: Today:
A new and comprehensive survey on how the middle class feels, released Wednesday by Pew Research Center, finds 42 percent of people who identify themselves as middle class say they are in worse shape financially than before the recession began. About 32 percent are in better shape, and the rest either don’t know or see no difference.
The recession officially ran from December of 2007 to June of 2009, although economic growth has generally been slow since and unemployment has remained high.
There is no hard and fast definition of middle class, but it’s clear from the Pew results that many people feel like the middle-class ideal is slipping through their fingers. The vast majority of the people who identified themselves as middle class also said that it’s tougher to maintain their standard of living than it was a decade ago.
